<nettime> Is CPSR Program Promoting Internet Privatization?

[ronda@umcc.ais.org (Ronda Hauben)]

James Love <love@cptech.org> wrote:

> CPSR is holding a workshop on the future of global internet
> administration in Alexandria, Virginia, on September 24-5.  
> They have an impressive and interesting cast of speakers,
> including, in no particular order, Esther Dyson, Ralph Nader, 
> Tony Rutkowski, Milton Mueller, Michael Froomkin, Coralee Whitcomb,
> Don Telage, David Post, Jamie Love, David Farber (invited),
> Paul Scolese (invited), Theresa Amato, Jean Camp, Hans Klein, 
> Mike Vita, Paul Garrin, Chris Ambler, Scott Bradner, Karl Auerbach, 
> Peter Deutsch and some others not yet named.  

> Here is the CPSR announcement:

> * * *  Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility (CPSR)  * * * 

Has this organization now become Computer Professionals for 
the Privatization of the Internet? CPSR has a proud origin and it
is a challenge to it to see if it will respect its roots in this
important battle over the soul of the Internet.

>Ralph Nader will give the keynote speech at CPSR's conference on global
>Internet administration.  The conference, to be held in Alexandria,

Ralph Nader has been a consumer advocate, but the issues involved
here are those of net.citizens or Netizens, not of consumers.

The is a new paradigm and not one that it is clear Nader recognizes
as something new.

See for example: http://www.columbia.edu/~rh120/ch106.xpr

The issue involved is the privatization of the administrative functions
of the Internet.

The Office of Inspector General of the National Science Foundation (OIG
of the NSF) in February 1997 issued a report opposing the privatization
of these functions.


          http://www.columbia.edu/~jrh29/geneva/NSF.inspector.general.txt


There was a proposal submitted to the NTIA in summer of 1998 opposing
the privatization of these functions.

See http://www.columbia.edu/~rh120/other/dns_proposal.txt

>Virginia, on September 24 and 25, will examine the issues surrounding the
>creation of a new Internet corporation, ICANN, to manage core technical
>functions of cyberspace.  A full conference announcement is below.

This leaves out that the issue is *not* the management, but the 
privatization of public functions, and public property in a new 
way with some of a new cast of advocates.

In the past the CPSR has promoted the privatization, rather than
the protection of the public property of these functions. Is 
that what this conference is to do as well?

There is no indication that the real question will be explored by 
the CPSR program.

The real question is why these public functions should *not* be
privatized.

Why the public administration of the Domain Name System, and 
other essential functions of the Internet, such as the root server
system, the IP system, the protocols, etc. need to be in public
hands and *under* public protection.

And that users are *not* customers, nor are users consumers.

That the whole structure of the ICANN is to create a privatized,
and illegitimate entity under the control of private interests
(ask who is currently funding ICANN), to change the fundamental
nature of the Internet by grabbing control of its essential
functions in the greatest givaway ever by the U.S. government.

Instead of the U.S. government protecting the Internet, and its
naming and addressing functions and its protocols development
and agreement processes, these processes are being put under
the control of those who can grab power in a big power play.

The whole concept of ICANN is flawed. 

The Internet was created by computer scientists in a computer
science supported community.

The continued scaling of the Internet requires that such public
and scientific processes and institutional forms continue to 
be the forms overseeing and protecting the Internet.

See for example: What Institutional Form is Needed to Replace 
ICANN? ICANN was created on the wrong model.
        URL: http://www.heise.de/tp/english/inhalt/te/5183/1.html
        URL: http://www.heise.de/tp/deutsch/inhalt/te/5239/1.html

The CPSR conference has invited advocates of ICANN and advocates
of consumer affairs. But users of the Internet are *not* 
consumers. The Internet is a participatory medium and users have
been part of those creating the content and form.

The user as Netizen or net.citizen is the social form that has
emerged with the development of the Internet. The Netizen
is being disenfranchisized by the creation of ICANN.

And temporary structural forms such as the Domain Name System
are being made permanent, when they need to be changed as 
the scaling of the Internet continues.

But the creation of ICANN shows that the whole model of privatizing
the Internet is a serious paradigm change in the nature of 
the Internet. The Internet is the creation of a research 
entity, and continued computer science research is needed to 
continued the growth and spread of the Internet, not privatizing
of the public processes and property.

The role of government in the development of the Internet needs
to be examined and the role of government in support of computer
science needs to be better understood.

See for example:

        URL: http://www.heise.de/tp/english/inhalt/co/5106/1.html

or          http://www.ais.org/~ronda/new.papers/arpa_ipto.txt


Is the CPSR conference raising such questions? Or is it only
trying to find a more palatable means to carry out the privatization
of the public processes and property?

Ronda
ronda@panix.com

See also http://www.ais.org/~jrh/acn/dns_supplement.txt
and http://www.ais.org/~jrh/acn/ACN9-1.txt


             Netizens: On the History and Impact
               of Usenet and the Internet
          http://www.columbia.edu/~hauben/netbook/
            in print edition ISBN 0-8186-7706-6 



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